Symbolic Dates – Substantive Issues (by Van Coufoudakis). The end of 2009 marked twenty years since the symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, came down. Twenty years later the “Wall of Shame” dividing Cyprus since the 1974 Turkish invasion remains intact thanks to international apathy and a dynamic Turkish foreign policy whose narrative continues to manipulate the changing … MORE

Rules and Norms in a Post-Western World / A lecture given at the cceia of Nicosia in honor of Keith Webb (by Chris Brown). It is a pleasure and privilege to be invited to give this lecture. Keith Webb and I were colleagues at the cceia of Kent at Canterbury for over a decade. This was in the 1980s and early 90s when Kent had a small but thriving postgraduate … MORE

EU as a Global Actor (by Ingemar Lindahl). There is now less than two months left of the Swedish Presidency. For this six-month period we had set two main priorities – and the two main challenges for the EU – the international economic crisis on the one hand, and the global climate negotiations on the other hand. A third priority has been the strengthening of the EU’s relations with its … MORE

Iran: An on-going Challenge after Thirty Years of Revolution (by Farid Mirbagheri). Four relevant events in the modern history of Iran should be noted at the outset: The Constitutional Revolution of 1906, where the United Kingdom appeared to side with those in favour of establishing Majles (parliament). The occupation of part or Iranian territory by the Soviet forces after WW II … MORE

EU ‘Supremos’ anxiously await the Kissinger call (by Christina Ioannou). “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?” The question that has been haunting Europe for over 30 years now, seems to be a rhetoric question no more. Following the EU extraordinary summit of November 19^th – where EU heads of state and government unanimously backed Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as … MORE

The Changing Global System: Tools for Coping (by Demetrios A. Theophylactou). It is reasonable to posit that the new post-Cold War, post-information international environment is best characterized by the fluidity inherent in the changing global system that conceivably transcends the ‘new order’ – an order that is still eagerly anticipated the world over. This is challenging … MORE

Cyprus’s Atlantic Identity and its Relations with Turkey (by Marios Panagiotis Efthymopoulos). Should Cyprus maintain its foreign policy orientation only with the EU or should it also establish a constructive cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization through participation in the Partnership for Peace (PfP)? It is expected that the creation of an Atlantic identity for Cyprus would … MORE

The Shot Not Yet Heard Round the World (by Andrew Novo). The censuring of Iran by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on 27 November shines the world spotlight on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program once again. Later that day, the former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman expressed satisfaction with the move, but also argued that it had come … MORE

The Frozen Union for the Mediterranean (by Dimitris K. Xenakis). The plan for a “Mediterranean Union” was announced before Sarkozy’s election in his speech in Toulon in May 2007 and since then it has been consistently developed. In his speech in the Moroccan city of Tangier in October 2007, President Sarkozy started to spell out the nature of the Mediterranean Union, seen as a “Union of … MORE

The Vulnerability of Small States (by Roderick Pace). An ongoing debate in the literature on small states is whether they are to be considered to be ‘vulnerable’ or whether they possess certain hidden strengths which work to their advantage. Political realists consider small states as ‘powerless’, liable to be pushed around by more powerfull states; economists shine their lanterns on small, successful … MORE